Weekend Recap

Friday night I got the urge to watch Dirty Dancing, a favorite movie of mine growing up. I love that movie and Steve loved making fun of all the cheesiness.

Saturday night was Girls Night "In" at Megan's house. Siobhan and I

headedover for a girly movie (The Last Song) and lots of treats including popcorn, M & M's, cannolis, brownies, and wine. Steve stayed home with Peyton and put him to bed, then enjoyed some "me" time. :)

Sunday we went to my dads house so he could have some quality time with Peyton. It was a very chill day and grandpa and Peyton had lots of fun together. While we were over, my dad sensed that Peyton was ready for solids. I had been thinking the same thing over the past few weeks, so we decided to take the plunge and went out and bought some rice cereal (as well as Oat and Barley for later!) I'll blog about that exciting experience next!

On a side note, I can't believe tomorrow is September 1st! This marks the beginning of football season, with ASU's first home game this Saturday!! I love when Fall rolls around. So much to look forward to. October is an especially busy month with lots of parties, football, fall color hikes, weddings, and last but not least, my 10 year high school reunion! It's a time to look forward to, when the weather finally cools down and we can come out of hibernation. With Peyton being a little older, I can take him on outdoor runs, trips to the zoo and all sorts of fun outdoor things!

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air."

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Developments

More developments in the world of Peyton!

First, I noticed him pincer grasping my ring the other day... I didn't think this was supposed to happen for a while, and sure enough after looking it up, the Pincer Grasp usually happens around 8-12 months. I'll keep my eye on him to see if it happens again, but I am positive that he used his pointer finger and thumb to grab my ring!

Another thing he'd been dabbling in and is now doing in full force: grabbing his feet! I think there's nothing cuter than when babies do this.

He loves himself some Ginger... our doggie that is! Whenever Ginger walks by, his face lights up with joy! But what's funny is, if Ginger turns away and Peyton can't see her face, he's very serious. As soon as he can see her face again, he smiles from ear to ear & squirms. We think she's pretty funny looking too! :) He loves to "pet" her (& it really does look like he's petting her!) and grab her floppy lips. Ginger's so good with him. Then, we go to the bathroom to wash our hands and I've found that Peyton loves to play with the water.

... there's nothing sweeter in the world. :)

"A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it."

-Frank A. Clark

Peyton did it!

... He rolled! This morning Peyton got up on his big, strong arms and rolled over! Then, he did it again!

Although he rolled once on Aug 1st, I feel like this was a little more real. I hope to get a video of it soon!

Happy 30th Birthday, Steve!!

Steve turned the big 3-0 on August 14th. When I asked him if he had any negative feelings about it, he said, "not at all." I figured!

Me, on the other hand, who has never felt unhappy about turning a year older either, started to feel a bit anxious about Steve's milestone birthday. I realized that Steve and I spent our entire 20's together. We met when I was 18 and he was 19, then turned a friendship into a relationship, got married, and had our first baby... all in our 20's. Now that he's in his 30's, and I'm not far behind, I started to see our life flash before my eyes. There's just something about a milestone birthday that makes you think about your life, and I'm very grateful to have loved all aspects of ours so far and look forward to reminiscing about our 30's someday, which will probably be here before we know it. (Who turned 30 again? Feels like I did! haha)

We spent Steve's day doing lots of fun things that I planned for him. We had pancakes at his favorite breakfast spot - Joe's Farm Grill. It was packed, but we found a good seat and enjoyed watching Peyton smile non-stop at the couple behind us (& vice versa).

Next up was a movie that Steve had been wanting to see - Inception. It was our first time taking Peyton to the movies, but I had no fear. Unfortunately, our sleeping baby woke because of a poopy diaper not too long after it started (go figure!). I changed it, got back, and we enjoyed watching Peyton stare at the big, bright screen, until a loud scene happened that scared the heck out of him. He uttered a cry, and as soon as I stood up to leave the theater, he had stopped. I left anyway because he was scared, & we hung out in the hall and met a few interesting women, to say the least. (It's funny how friendly people are when you have a baby!). Steve came out and we decided to leave. It was cute when I overheard Steve (being completely serious) say to Peyton, "Next time we'll take you to a Disney movie." Awww!! :)

On a side note, Grandma & Grandpa Olson offered to come over and babysit last night, so we took their offer then took our rain check for the movies and went and saw Inception again. Great movie, but you cannot blink otherwise you'll miss something. We were glad we left and came back another time.

The main event of Steve's birthday was the surprise party I threw him that evening. There were about 30 friends and family who met up at, where other than Steve's favorite place - Barro's Pizza, to celebrate. He was completely surprised when we walked in, I couldn't believe I actually pulled it off! Thanks so much to mom, Bob, dad, Julie, Dennis, and Joan for helping me put it together, I really couldn't have pulled it off without them!

A group of about 10 of us later went to Tempe Marketplace where we enjoyed some drinks and had some laughs. By the time we got home we were exhausted, but Steve truly had a great birthday and that was the goal! Happy Birthday, babe!

~My FAV picture! All the Aunts & Uncles with mommy, daddy & Peyton~

~The girls!~

~Peyton's Aunts & Uncles~

Five Months!

August 14th was a very special day -- Peyton turned 5 months and Steve turned the big 3-0!

This past month was such an exciting one in the Peyton department. I felt like every other day he was doing something new. Month five was definitely one of the most rapidly changing months for Peyton.

At the beginning of the month, he started to seem like he suddenly "gets it." He almost always turns when you say his name and he squirms & squeals when you make his bottle. He opens up his mouth when you put the bottle to his lips & is probably ready to start solids, but we're still waiting until 6 months... which seems soooo...far...away, but is really less than 30 days!

He belly laughed several times this month and is just starting to laugh out loud almost every day. At the end of July, he started to sleep until 7am. Some days were 7:30am, but at this point, it's pretty much a consistent 7am wake up call! BUT, today however, was his latest with 8am!!!!! And even then he was just chilling in his crib, hardly making a peep.

One of the biggest things we've been working on is getting him to roll over. On August 1st, he rolled over, but I lured him with a toy and am hesitant to write this date down in the books. He rolled half way, then a few seconds later, rolled all the way. He hasn't done it since. However, today he was SO CLOSE to rolling in one swift movement on his own, but got half way there and stopped. It'll happen any day now.

He also started to "swim" big time, when on his belly. I almost feel like he's trying to crawl and rolling over will be an accident. He seems to have more interest in moving along than rolling over. He's grabbing our faces now, pulling on our ears, chin, nose, etc. He totally anticipates things happening that he knows, like water coming out of the spout at bath time, his bottle, etc.

Another newbie is putting his hand behind his head/ear. Of course this makes me wonder several things - is he teething? does he have an earache? headache? is he soothing himself? Who knows, but someday we'll figure it out!

As I blogged about earlier, he just started to Tripod Sit. That was the last big thing he did in his 5th month.

I can tell (I think?) that he's not growing as fast. He's still eating 6oz bottles (with one 7oz in the morning), five times a day. With him sleeping so late now, it's hard to get 5 bottles in. Four bottles with 7-8 oz does not work! He can go 5+ hours without eating when he has a 7oz bottle, so at that rate he'd be eating 3 times a day, and that's not enough!

He's wearing 6 month clothing, and fits best in 9 month PJ's.

~It wasn't hard at all getting a smiley pic this month!~

~"My Dad Rocks" shirt in honor of daddy's 30th bday~

~Having a man-to-man talk~

~Likes the cold teething ring~

~Tummy time!~

"It is the nature of babies to be in bliss."

-Deepak Chopra

Tripod Sitting

Yesterday Peyton hit a new milestone - he sat! I was hesitant to write it down in the books, but later found out that even though he didn't sit up on his own and couldn't sit up without using his hands to stabilize him, he was still sitting by himself for a good 25 seconds and that type of sitting has a name of it's own - Tripod Sitting.

Until his back and neck muscles are strong enough, he won't be able to pull himself into a sitting position on his own, nor will he be able to sit without using his hands. But until then, he can still sit in the tripod position and I think it's pretty darn exciting! He also started playing with his feet when sitting, so I'm happy to see him discover those as well.

Wisdom.

There's one word that I've heard over & over that people use to describe Peyton - wise.

The first thing Steve's co-worker said about Peyton's newborn pictures was, "he has a wise little face." A random person who saw his picture on Facebook said, "he looks like he's saying, come closer, I have wisdom to share with you." And a friend once said, "he looks like a thinker."

As freaky as it was by about the 3rd time someone described him using this word, I started to really watch him to see if I could notice all of these "wise" moments he has.

How could I have ever missed it?! He's constantly studying objects and really listens to people talk and all the noises around him. He loves learning about the world, and lately, I feel like he really "gets" it. It's amazing to watch this little person grow! And to think that one day, he'll be smarter than his mama! :)

~This is the pic that someone said, "He looks like he's saying, come closer, I have wisdom to share with you."~

~This is the pic that someone said, "he has a wise little face."~

"The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are."

-C.S. Lewis

Visits

My good friend Rachel is in town for work and she's been staying with us since Wednesday. We've spent the last 2 nights staying up late talking and doing what we do best together - reminiscing & cracking up. :) She usually has her son, Jansen, with her during her (work) trips out here and sometimes her husband too. But this time it's just her, and the upside to that is we have lots of time to hang out together and in this case, lots of time for her to get to know Peyton.

My mom and Julie went to Nebraska last week to visit my grandma & grandpa (hi grandma & grandpa! xoxo). They flew out of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, which is literally 10 minutes from our house. So, on their way home they came over and visited us. We went to the Olive Mill for lunch, a new (to us) restaurant in Queen Creek that Steve found. It was featured on the Food Network a few days ago, and it was awesome! I highly recommend this place. It's almost like a wine bar, mixed with a Farmer's Market feel. You can take tours and there's a huge outdoor area with picnic tables. The menu is delicious and there's tons of "olive oil" cupcakes, gelato, etc.

~Here's some Cornhusker gear straight from NE!~

Have a great weekend everyone!

Splish, Splash, I Was Taking A Bath

Here's a clip of what bath time is like. Peyton loves splashing around in the tub!

Lately, he looks at the water spout the moment I lay him on my lap, in anticipation of me turning it on. He loves looking at the water coming out, and I sometimes put his hand under it and he just opens and closes his hands, feeling the water. He's also been trying his best to look all the way behind him at the bright orange cup. It's sooooo amazing watching them grow and start to notice things that have always been there.

Peyton Laughing!

On our way home from a BBQ this past Sunday, Peyton surprised us and started cracking up at his toy football. It's amazing at what makes these little ones laugh! This is the 4th time he's laughed like this and it always happens when we're not expecting it. I think we've watched this video a hundred times, it just never gets old. :)

Auntie Time!

We went to my mom's house last weekend, and Peyton got in some good time with his Aunt's! It was a day of relaxation (well, mom spent the day cooking!) but for most of us, it was a lounge-around kinda day. :)

"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses."

-Joyce Brothers

Friends

Peyton has another new friend in the world, baby Brice McCollem! He was born on June 23rd and was a whopping 9 lbs, 13 oz. Congratulations Siobhan and Darren! Brice is already 5 weeks old and at last, we got all the boys (Peyton, Owen & Brice) together for a "Play Date."

But first, remember way back in December, I posted a picture of Me, Megan & Siobhan all pregnant together? (let me remind you that this was at the Ugly Sweater Christmas party)

~I'm 25 weeks pregnant, Megan 32 weeks, Siobhan 14 weeks~

Well here is a picture of all of us with our boys at their first play date. It'll be awhile before they can actually play, but it's still fun getting them (and us) together.

~Brice 5 weeks, Peyton 20 weeks, Owen 27 weeks~

~This is what play dates look like! (Meanwhile, Brice is eating)~

~Owen & Peyton. Brice will be able to come out & play soon!~

"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."

-Unknown